Wipro to train all employees on AI to become an AI-first company
Subha Tatavarti, Chief Technology Officer, Wipro Limited
IT major Wipro aims to train nearly all its employees on artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) as it transitions to become an AI-first company, a senior company executive said.
As part of this strategy, Wipro last year committed to invest $1 billion to advance its AI capabilities over the next three years and launched ai360, an ‘AI-first innovation ecosystem’. It is aimed at integrating AI into every platform, tool, and solution used internally and offered to clients.
“On some level, all Wipro employees are working on and with AI or GenAI. When we announced Wipro ai360 last summer, it was about creating an AI-first culture, and part of that means, we all need to be dedicated to AI,” Subha Tatavarti, chief technology officer, Wipro told Business Standard.
Till date, more than 2,20,000 employees at Wipro have completed training on AI fundamentals and the responsible use of AI, said Tatavarti. This is significant, considering Wipro’s total workforce numbered 2,40,234 as of December 31.
“We have over 55,000 AI practitioners in our ecosystem, who are AI experts, engineers, consultants, and data scientists dedicated to working to infuse AI and GenAI across industries, technologies, and domain ecosystems,” Tatavarti said.
Wipro has curated a training curriculum for employees to learn AI, machine learning, and GenAI. It includes a range of courses at different proficiency levels, from foundational awareness to advanced specialisation tailored for individuals with varying levels of knowledge and expertise.
“The courses are designed to help associates develop the skills necessary to use AI and contribute to the ongoing advancements in these areas and with multiple learning paths to ensure all employees are getting the appropriate AI education and tools based on their roles,” said Tatavarti.
She said Wipro has access to 1.7 million engineers and developers on its talent cloud platform, Topcoder, which plays a critical role in the company’s skilling and up-skilling efforts, as well as helping clients scale and accelerate AI projects.
“Finally, we will augment our talent pool through acquisitions, investments, and incubation programs with startups via our ventures arm, which have brought significant strength to our AI portfolio,” she said.
AI is at an ‘inflection point’ where enterprises are experimenting with various proof of concepts (POCs), said Tatavarti. “They are looking to scale, shifting from the age of adoption to the age of value…which will be found from efficiencies created, savings realised, increased productivity and monetisation, and new revenue streams. This means clients are looking for more ways to implement AI and for more solutions integrated with AI,” she said.
First Published: Mar 28 2024 | 4:41 PM IST